Monte Carlo depletion analysis of a PWR integral fuel burnable absorber by MCNAP

The MCNAP is a personal computer-based continuous energy Monte Carlo (MC) neutronics analysis program written on C++ language. For the purpose of examining its qualification, a comparison of the depletion analysis of three integral burnable fuel assemblies of the pressurized water reactor(PWR) by the MCNAP and deterministic fuel assembly(FA) design vendor codes is presented. It is demonstrated that the continuous energy MC calculation by the MCNAP can provide a very accurate neutronics analysis method for the burnable absorber FA's. It is also demonstrated that the parallel MC computation by adoption of multiple PC's enables one to complete the lifetime depletion analysis of the FA's within the order of hours instead of order of days otherwise. (orig.)